Samsung Fascinate for Verizon - Galaxy S Android smartphone review

Score

4.4 stars
"Great"

(How we score)

Best display on the market, great browser, solid HD video recording, good user interface

No shutter button, no Google search option, very poor speakerphone

Summary

The Samsung Fascinate for Verizon is part of Samsung's Android-powered Galaxy S family of smartphones. All the versions sold in the U.S. (AT&T's Captivate, T-Mobile's Vibrant, Sprint's Epic 4G) feature 4-inch Super AMOLED^(INFO) displays, 16GB of storage (internal or card based), and a 1GHz Samsung Hummingbird CPU. Only the Sprint model features a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, though.

The Fascinate offers impressive specs overall, and its 5 megapixel 720p HD capable camera ranks high among them, since it even includes the flash that the Captivate and Vibrant lack. It also has none of the lag issues found on the earlier models, which is a relief. The speakerphone function on the phone, however, barely seems to work. Outbound audio on speakerphone calls is no louder than when the speakerphone is off. Regular calls work just fine. Some people might dislike the Microsoft Bing search and mapping features of the phone, but I'm not one of those people. I like them just fine.

Overall it's an attractive device with great capabilities that runs on a solid network. Its $199 price tag is not necessarily a bargain, but this is my favorite Galaxy S smartphone on the market and is also my favorite non-QWERTY smartphone available on Verizon. That's saying something.

You'll find two videos of the Samsung Fascinate after the Table of Contents, below, as well as a sample 720p HD video recorded with it in the gallery at the end of this review.